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Beast of Gévaudan
The Beast of Gévaudan is a feral wolf-like cryptid who terrorized the former province of Gévaudan, France, during the 18th century. Overview The attacks, which covered an area stretching 90 by 80 kilometres (56 by 50 mi), were said to have been committed by a beast or beasts that had formidable teeth and immense tails according to contemporary eyewitnesses. Victims were often killed by having their throats torn out. The Kingdom of France used a considerable amount of manpower and money to hunt the animals; including the resources of several nobles, soldiers, civilians, and a number of royal huntsmen. The number of victims differs according to sources. In 1987, one study estimated there had been 210 attacks; resulting in 113 deaths and 49 injuries; 98 of the victims killed were partly eaten. However, other sources claim it killed between 60 and 100 adults and children, as well as injuring more than 30. Description Descriptions of the time vary, but generally the beast was said to look like a wolf but be about as big as a calf. It had a large dog-like head with small straight ears, a wide chest, and a large mouth which exposed very large teeth. The beast's fur was said to be red in color but its back was streaked with black. Theories According to modern scholars, public hysteria at the time of the attacks contributed to widespread myths that supernatural beasts roamed Gévaudan, but deaths attributed to a beast were more likely the work of a number of wolves or packs of wolves. In 2001 the French naturalist Michel Louis proposed that the red-colored mastiff belonging to Jean Chastel sired the beast and its resistance to bullets may have been due to it wearing the armoured hide of a young boar thus also accounting for the unusual colour. The problem of attacks by wolves in those years was very serious, not only in France but throughout Europe, with tens of thousands of deaths in the eighteenth century alone. Depictions in fiction Literature * The first literary reference to the 'Beast Of Gévaudan' occurs in Élie Berthet's 1858 novel La Bête du Gévaudan, in which the killings are attributed to both a wolf and a man who believes himself to be a werewolf. * In 1904, the author and journalist Robert Sherard faithfully revisited Berthet's idea with his novel Wolves: An Old Story Retold which once again featured both a werewolf and a huge savage wolf. Élie Berthet's La Bête du Gévaudan is referenced in the introduction as being the source of the story. * Robert Louis Stevenson travelled through the region in 1878 and described the incident in his book Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, in which he claims that at least one of the creatures was a wolf. * In the Patricia Briggs novel Hunting Ground, the Beast is in fact Jean Chastel, who is a werewolf. Film and television * The beast featured in an episode of Animal X suggesting it was a wolf-dog hybrid that was trained to attack people. * The French television film La bête du Gévaudan (2003), directed by Patrick Volson was based on the attacks of the Beast * Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001),directed by Christophe Gans, is a popular feature film based on the legend. The film took several creative liberties in order to make the story more interesting to a general audience. Rather than a wolf or wolf-dog crossbreed, the movie portrays the creature as the offspring of a lion crossbred with another unknown big cat, equipped with armor to make it seem more threatening. The Beast is the instrument of the film's eponymous secret organisation, which attempts to undermine public confidence in the king and ultimately take over the country by stating that the Beast is a divine punishment for the King's indulgence of the modern embrace of science over religion. * In the 2010 remake The Wolfman the wolf-headed cane given to Lawrence Talbot was acquired, according to the previous owner, in the city of Gévaudan. * In October 2009, the History Channel aired a documentary called The Real Wolfman which argued that the beast was an exotic animal in the form of a striped hyena, a long-haired species of hyena now extinct in Europe. * In the MTV drama Teen Wolf, the character Allison learns in the sixth episode of the first season that her werewolf-hunting family was responsible for slaughtering the Beast of Gévaudan. The same beast is the main focus of the second half of the series' fifth season. Gallery BêteDuGévaudan.jpg BeastOfGevaudan.jpg BêteDuGévaudan1765.jpg Category:Creatures Category:Cryptids Category:Canids Category:European Creatures Category:Non-sapient Beings Category:Carnivores Category:Man-Eaters Category:Literary Creatures Category:TV Show Creatures Category:Movie Creatures Category:Forest Creatures Category:Live Action Creatures Category:Extreme Category:Teen Wolf Universe Category:Quadrupedal Creatures